My body is like royalty to me, but it doesn't like what I'm feeding it

I miss the nutrition that fast food provided me. It sounds like a strange statement, but you don't realize how much you need some of the crap that's in it until you stop eating it.

I'm not one to actively try and "balance" my diet. I eat until I'm full (or until I'm being impolite) and then stop. I mean, hell, the stupid new food pyramid doesn't make any sense at all, and that was the last straw in me trying to eat right. Between the "intuitive" colours on that monstrosity and the 2002 report that bread causes cancer, I pretty much lost all faith in nutrition "experts".

For the most part, I've always known what my body needs to function. The problem is, for the past four weeks or so, I've changed my dietary choosings, rarely eating out and eating more regularly. My sunrise devotionals (which have me waking up just after 6 AM) have been key in me getting breakfast (something I never ate before, except very rarely), and actually having time to prepare my lunches (which is also a novelty). Dinners have almost all been "in" because I can get a solid meal for about $2 if I eat in, as opposed to the $7-10 dinners are if you eat out.

But now, with regular, longer-lasting (and, sometimes, larger) meals, I find myself actually hungrier on a more regular basis. My apetite is voracious, and my gods, if you thought I could put away food before, you haven't seen anything yet. Let me put it this way: an extra large pizza with breadsticks doesn't stand a chance against me, and when I was a Freshman here at OSU, I was content with just a large pizza for dinner.

And I'm actually slimmer than I was four weeks ago.

For some reason, my metabolism has hit the roof with the increase in food, I think, and I just don't know how to stop it: cutting back on food seems like a very, very bad idea (I'm already operating at the failure point some days), and increasing also seems ill-advised (given my metabolism rate, I might starve because my body processes food too fast at this rate). Wellspring should help, because my dietary needs are different when camping than in "normal" life.

Anyway, here's a rundown of the changes in my diet in the past 4 weeks or so:

Things added to my diet:

Vegetables. Lots of green shit, and certainly more than I ever have eaten in my life: it's cheap and easy to dump into pasta

Whole grains: not cheap, but I figured that they were smart, so I bought some before running out of cash last week. Besides, disgusting as they are, you can't get the good 'ol bleached flour crap in your favourite cereals anymore.

More carbs (if you can believe it): more breads/cereals, more potatoes, more pasta, more stuff like that

Water: there's more good ol' H2O in my diet, too.

Things removed from my diet:

Grease. I mean, when you no longer eat burgers from McDonalds that drip grease, you're eating less.

Sugar, in general: More by accident than conscious choice.

Fats: there's just not enough fat in my diet now, and the crusade against TransFats is making lots of tasty, fatty things less appetizing to eat, anyway.

Flatly put, I don't like what this diet is doing to my body. I'm uncomfortable with the changes I feel, and I think it's time to go back to the horrific stuff people think I shouldn't eat.

However, I also know that often, a bit of discomfort and doing what you don't think you should is good for you.

In the end, it's interesting to see just how poorly my body sometimes operates on certain foods and under certain conditions, and to watch it rebound over time. I'm not at all sure that my body can handle a "healthy" lifestyle over time, unless this system shock is only temporary. I do, though, intend to continue to eat like this for a while longer: I'm not in any danger, just discomfort, and I'm entertained by the experimentation of the whole situation.

More to the point, though, is this: it's entirely possible that my body has entered "system shock" mode and said, "Hey, idiot! We're not used to this crap! We don't know what to do with a 'whole grain'! What's this green stuff? Is it moldy? Have we been picking through the trash or something? Vegetables? Are we on an 'end of the alphabet' diet here? Get us a cheeseburger!"

[apparently, my body speaks in the "royal we"]

This means that my body may, eventually, find itself quite happy with this new diet, so it's up to me to work it through for a bit more to see what happens.